(Newser)
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Bloomington South 107, Arlington 2. That wasn't a typo in the high school sports pages today, it was the final score of a girls basketball game, reports the Indianapolis Star. And now the Bloomington coach is under fire on social media and from Arlington coach Ebony Jackson: "No, it's not OK but he will have to live with that," she says. “If that’s how they want to carry themselves, that’s fine.” For his part, Bloomington coach Larry Winters insists his team wasn't running up the score. “I didn’t tell my girls to stop shooting because that would have been more embarrassing (to Arlington)," he says. "We weren't trying to embarrass them."

At Forbes, Bob Cook says Winters was in a "no-win situation" and explains the background: Arlington used to have a decent team, but that was before the state took it over because of bad academic performance and turned it over to a private company. "When schools schedule each other, perhaps there should be a line in the contract that immediately voids the game if there is a change of control of the school," he suggests. In the meantime, the state is looking into establishing a mercy rule.

If that private company is focusing on academics, then this score was a big win!

RaymeeDotCom

Dec 13, 2012 2:04 PM CST

I wonder if the one girl who scored is some kind of hero.

Drewzy

Dec 13, 2012 1:29 PM CST

Good sportsmanship requires that all participants do their best at all times. Had the winning team gone out on the court and "screwed around", or, for one second, not taken their opponent "seriously", that would have been unsportsmanlike. In my younger days, I had the opportunity to play a few proffesionals at my sport, in "exhibition" type matches, and was irritated that they didn't go "all out." I wanted to know where I stood in relation to the best of the best. If that meant getting shut out, so be it. Every point I earned would have been "real" and earned. Shame on that losing teams coach for instilling such poor values on her team.